What's your favorite name?

Ignatius, anyone? How about Clotilde?

One of the best aspects of genealogy research, for me at least, is learning some of the names my ancestors saw fit to bestow upon their children. When I first started and I found my 4th g grandfather Micah and his sister Silence, I was fascinated. Now, I know that naming conventions change over time and vary greatly with geography and other factors. (I also have a pet theory about the name Silence... In my family it always seems to have been given to the 11th or 12th child, so I believe that it was wishful thinking.)

Still, some names just jump out at you. My current favorites are:

Clotilde LeGrand (1st cousin twice removed)
Bezaleel Howe (b.1750 MA,d.1825 NY - 4th g grand uncle) (his son was also Bezaleel)
Ignatius Malloy (b. after 1845 - 1st cousin 3 times removed)

and my winner... S. Imogene Addison (b. abt 1820 - 1st cousin 4 times removed.) I think that the "S" was for Silence...

So what are your favorite names?

Tags: favorite names, first names, fun names, names, odd names, surnames, unusual names

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Bielawa on July 29, 2009 at 11:13pm

Great question, Kathleen!

My favorite ancestral first name.....Kunegunda!
And I've got TWO of them! Both of my maternal grandmother's grandmothers were Kunegunda. Kunegunda Lechowska and Kunegunda Olejnik. (Oh, those just roll right off a Slavic tongue!)

Story goes one of the mothers in law wanted to name my grandmother Kunegunda, as it was so appropriate. My grandmother was always happy her own parents decided against it and went with "Maria"!!

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Permalink Reply by Diana Robinson on July 30, 2009 at 7:14pm

Hi all,

My grandmother's name was Cholles (she was known as Collie), and I've always wondered about the origin of the name - Googling has not given me an answer! Her parents' origins were Scottish and she was born and raised in the Gaspe region of Quebec. Also had a ggrandfather named "Jamin" - a biblical name I think. My favourites though are names from books I've loved - Claudine, eg. (Colette). I love names and always ask people about theirs!

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Permalink Reply by jennifer suzanne dawson on July 30, 2009 at 7:48pm

Unfortunatly the names in my research are very plain and very repetatative. We have Frank/Francis /Harry /Henry? Jack/ Jackie / John/ all interchangable through the generations.OH!! for a Alouisius {phoneticly speaking} Hilderbrandt/Clothile or even Micheal/ Paul etc. I am content with Mariah{ as in the wind} Lucrecia/{as in Borjia} and so on.We also have currently John/ Jake/Jose"/and Juan carlos all some form of John. Regards Jennifer.

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Fox Allen on July 30, 2009 at 9:38pm

I don't know... I kind of like Lucrecia :-)

I know what you mean, though. I have more than my fair share of James, Ann, Mary, John. I love it when John and Mary Allen get married and name all 500 of their children John, Mary, James and Ann... it makes it so much simpler doesn't it?

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Permalink Reply by Carolyn Sue Drummond on April 7, 2010 at 8:42pm

Oh it's much more fun when you get John, son John, grandfather John and All have John's as cousins and Uncles, etc. ....All of them also had Benjamins, and Josiah's and wives that seemed to be Mary and Anna, etc. Sorting them out and trying to fit them into the right families....which records apply to which Johns...........................

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Fox Allen on July 30, 2009 at 9:34pm

Cholles is a stumper. BehindTheName.com is one of my favorite sources for names, and they had nada. However, according to A Dictionary of English Surnames By Percy Hide Reaney, Richard Middlewood Wilson, "Cholle, Cholles:..." "...a nickname from OE creole 'throat, dewlap'."

I guess OE creole is Old English? Is there such a thing as Old English creole??

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Fox Allen on July 30, 2009 at 9:44pm

BTW, you were right about Jamin. According to BehindTheName, Jamin "means "right hand" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament this was the name of a son of Simeon".

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Fox Allen on July 30, 2009 at 9:27pm

Good ones... I can't imagine anyone having trouble pronouncing those names! :-) I think I'd say daily "thank you"'s to my parents for naming me Maria.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Avery on December 16, 2010 at 7:46pm

Interesting to see your post re Kunegunda. I have seen it in connection with the old Wolford or Wohlfarth lines coming to PA but they spelled it with a "C" .

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Permalink Reply by Joy Logan Burkhart on July 30, 2009 at 8:41pm

The one I wouldn't saddle my child with belonged to my g-g-g-grandmother, Perlina (my dad pronounces it P'liney). I've seen it spelled as Paulina (trying to clean it up a bit, I guess), but have seen many girls with this name on the census records. One that is beautiful to me belonged to another g-g-g-grandmother, Talitha. It's in the Book of Mark 5:41 "Talitha, cumi" or "Little girl, rise up" in Aramaic. This seems to have been a popular name in the mid-1800s. It's also found as Delita, Delitha, Telitha, etc! Hard to track her down, when it was misspelled most of the time. But, my all-time favorite was my Grandmother's: Sarah Elizabeth. I've told mom and dad I wished they'd followed the old way of naming us kids and given me her name. Dad said it could be worse, I could have gotten his mom's name, too: Hilda Pearl! Or, a combination of the two. Sarah Pearl wouldn't have been too bad, but Hilda Elizabeth! I love the name Elizabeth, but PLEASE, not Hilda! LOL!